October News: Edmonton Startup Week & AI-powered supply chains

Hi there,

October is in full swing, which means our teams are busy as ever preparing academic papers, supporting our partners’ AI adoption goals, and providing transformational opportunities to gain new knowledge and skills in AI.

This month also brings one of our favourite times of the year for the tech and startup communities: Edmonton Startup Week! This year, Amii is excited to sponsor the AI and machine learning track. The events and meetups will highlight AI’s place in creating competitive advantage for startups right here at home and across the globe. Check out the full Edmonton Startup Week schedule, taking place October 18-22, to find out how you can connect with the Amii team!

While we’re on the topic of startups, we’ve recently launched applications for our third cohort of Supply Chain AI West, our first accelerator program, which gives founders access to hands-on training and coaching to build AI-powered supply chain products and solutions. Book your discovery call with our team today, and learn more about the program, which is supported by an investment from SCALE.AI. Applications close on November 8.

See you over video chat soon,  

October Highlights: Research, Industry, Community and Training

Industry & Community Updates:

• If your early-stage startup is ready to build an AI-powered supply chain product or solution, our Supply Chain AI West accelerator stream is for you! Learn more about the program and how to apply before the deadline on November 8.
• Edmonton Startup Week revs up next week. Celebrate the passion and vibrancy of the city’s tech and startup community Oct 18 - 22. Amii is proud to sponsor the AI and machine learning track. See a full list of Startup Week events.
• Amii is thrilled to introduce our VP, Investment and Partnerships: Russ Erickson. Russ has more than 25 years of experience in Alberta’s tech sector. Russ is passionate about AI, its ability to help Canadian companies compete globally and solve some of the world’s biggest challenges.
• Alberta Innovates announced four global business accelerators to power growth and opportunities for Alberta startups. Together, the accelerators will further Alberta’s position as a global technology and innovation hub, diversifying the provincial economy, creating growth, jobs and a knowledge workforce for the future.

Research Updates:

• Take a closer look at how AI is helping to clean water in a greener way. ISL Adapt, the University of Alberta and Amii have teamed up with the town of Drayton Valley for a pilot project that uses reinforcement learning to make water treatment less energy-intensive.
• Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Amii Lili Mou discusses natural text generation and understanding for our AI in Video Games series. In a short video, Lili discusses his work on systems that can better understand, interpret and use human speech to create natural-sounding text, which can have implications for paraphrasing, translation software and other exciting uses.
• Also in our AI in Video Games series, Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Amii Osmar Zaïane gives a short talk on his work with social network analysis. In exploring how entities interact with one another, we can learn more about how relationships between communities and individuals can change over time.
• Yangchen Pan, an Amii researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Alberta, presented his work on “Learning Natural Sparse Representations by Fuzzy Tiling Activation" at the August 27 AI Seminar.
• Shanny Lu (Unit Manager - Data & Analytics Consultant at DevFacto) and Hongbiao Tao (Senior Analytics Consultant at DevFacto) presented “AI – An Industrial Roller Coaster Ride" at the AI Seminar on Sept. 3. The pair talked about their organization’s data and analytics process with a focus on bringing an AI project from vision to reality.

Training Updates:

• AI4Good Lab has a look at SoQuo, the winner of the 2021 Edmonton Accelerator Award and alumni of the AI4Good Demo Day. SoQuo's mobile app used AI to analyze a user's Twitter feed to provide personalized warnings about content that might affect their mental health.
• ML Foundations is a great first step for your AI & ML journey! This live online course gives you the basics of AI with real-world examples. Register for the next class on November 4.
• And expand on that knowledge by exploring more technical concepts in ML Foundations 2! Dive deeper into the tools, strategy and ideas surrounding data and machine learning. Sign up for the next class on November 18.

Upcoming Events

October 19: Edmonton Startup Week – ML in the Wild

You’ve seen artificial intelligence and machine learning portrayed in the movies, TV shows, and books for generations -- but what is machine learning really? What can machine learning do, what can it not do, what happens when it fails, and what is it being used for right here in Edmonton? Join experts from Amii to learn what machine learning looks like in the wild!

RSVP Now

October 20: Edmonton Startup Week – AI Meetup

Learn about the latest tools and techniques in machine learning, and explore topics that Amii researchers and industry professionals are thinking about or working on. Hear from Arnold Gihozo from Areto Labs and Mohammadhossein Reshadi from samdesk: at the end of each presentation, participants will have the opportunity to participate in a Q&A session.

RSVP Now

October 22: Edmonton Startup Week – AI Seminar

The AI Seminar is a weekly meeting at the University of Alberta where researchers interested in artificial intelligence (AI) can share their research. Presenters include both local speakers from the University of Alberta and visitors from other institutions. Topics can be related in any way to artificial intelligence, from foundational theoretical work to innovative applications of AI techniques to new fields and problems.

This special Edmonton Startup Week edition features Amii Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair Jacob Jaremko speaking about how he helped grow work that started in academia into a successful startup company.

RSVP Now

October 26-27: Canadian Symposium for Computational Neuroscience

Introducing Campus Alberta Neuroscience's first Canadian Symposium for Computational Neuroscience! This national symposium will connect trainees, researchers and industry representatives from across the country to share knowledge, research and innovation. Amii is sponsoring and leading the Interactive Workshop, providing attendees with an understanding of AI and ML in the real world.

Get your ticket

See a full list of Amii and partner events on our Events page.

Job Opportunities

Work at Amii:

• Machine Learning Engineer - Apply by October 16
• Associate Machine Learning Scientist - Apply by October 17
• Financial Analyst - Apply by October 22

Work at the University of Alberta:

• Software Engineer - Apply by October 17

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